Timeline of Events (Cannon)
Timeline of Events (Cannon) for Metal Gear The first Metal Gear game for the MSX follows Solid Snake, a rookie member of the FOXHOUND special operations unit. He is sent by his superior Big Boss to the fictional South African fortress Outer Heaven, with the goal of finding the missing squad member Gray Fox and investigating a weapon known as Metal Gear. However, Big Boss is later revealed to be the leader of Outer Heaven, which he has created as a place for soldiers to fight free of any ideology that he believes has been forced upon them by governments. He fights Snake and, although he loses, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake reveals Big Boss' survival. The two face off, with Snake once again achieving victory. Metal Gear Solid elaborates on the storyline of the earlier games and reveals that Solid Snake is a genetic clone of Big Boss, created as part of a secret government project. A new antagonist is introduced in the form of Liquid Snake, Snake's twin brother who takes control of FOXHOUND after Snake's retirement. Liquid and FOXHOUND take control of a nuclear weapons disposal facility in Alaska and commandeer REX, the next-generation Metal Gear weapons platform being tested there. They threaten to detonate REX's warhead unless the government turns over the remains of Big Boss. Solid Snake destroys Metal Gear REX and kills each of the renegade FOXHOUND members with the exception of Revolver Ocelot. A third Snake brother known as Solidus Snake is introduced as the United States President at the end of Metal Gear Solid and serves as the main antagonist of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. During his time as President, Solidus became aware of a secretive cabal known as "The Patriots" who were steadily manipulating the course of human history. After his tenure as President is over, Solidus takes control of the "Big Shell" offshore facility, which is being used to develop Arsenal Gear, a mobile undersea fortress designed to influence human development by filtering the availability of information across the internet. The game is set four years after Liquid's death in Metal Gear Solid, and it puts the player in control of Raiden, a soldier who fights against Solidus.44 Raiden joins forces with Snake, and later learns that they are all being manipulated by Revolver Ocelot, who has been working for the Patriots. At the end of the game, Ocelot seemingly becomes possessed by Liquid Snake as the nanomachines from Liquid Snake's arm (Which Ocelot took to replace his own arm after Grey Fox slices it off in Metal Gear Solid) work their way into Ocelot's thoughts to begin to process. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, which is chronologically the first game in the series, introduces a younger version of Big Boss when he was under the codename Snake during the Cold War.45 The game focuses on the rise of Naked Snake from apprentice to legendary soldier as well as the downfall of his mentor and matriarchal figure, The Boss. After her staged defection to the Soviet Union ends in disaster, Snake is sent into Russia to kill The Boss and end the threat posed by Yevgeny Borisovitch Volgin, a GRU colonel with plans to overthrow the Soviet government. The origins the Patriots are also explored in the game. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops serves as a direct sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and follows Naked Snake's life after disbanding from FOX. Not yet accepting the Big Boss codename, the plot features the origins of his mercenary unit as he attempts to escape the San Hieronymo Peninsula and does battle with his old unit.46 Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots deals with a rapidly aging Solid Snake (now branded Old Snake) who is still on his quest to find and defeat Revolver Ocelot, now known as Liquid Ocelot. Despite destroying the Arsenal Gear in Sons of Liberty, the Patriots have continued in their plans to influence the course of human history, installing artificial intelligence systems around the world. Ocelot, opposed to this, has assembled armies with which to fight back, and intends to hijack their entire operating system for his own ends. Solid Snake's objective later changes to destroying the artificial intelligences of the Patriots and stop their oppression. After he and his allies succeed, Snake decides to live out his life peacefully. The next title, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, is set ten years after the events of Snake Eater and returns to the story of the young Big Boss. Now the head of the mercenary corporation MSF (Militaires Sans Frontières), Big Boss discovers that nuclear warheads are being transported to Latin America and must put a stop to them. Peace Walker features an entirely new cast of characters to provide both aid and intel for Big Boss. A few characters from previous games, such as a younger Miller, make appearance in the game. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is set four years after Guns of the Patriots and it stars Raiden as a cyborg ninja mercenary. Raiden joins the private military firm, Maverick Security Consulting, and is tasked with defending the president of an unspecified African country. However the situation goes astray and the president is killed by a rival PMC company named Desperado Enforcement LLC. Raiden is defeated in the battle, but decides to re-avenge his failure and is sent out with a brand new cyborg body to fight the mysterious military group. The upcoming Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, serves as the direct sequel to Peace Walker and is composed of two chapters similar to the Tanker and Plant chapters in Sons of Liberty. The prologue is set a few weeks after the final mission in Peace Walker, with Big Boss facing off against Cipher (Zero). Big Boss is tasked with rescuing returning characters such as Paz Ortega Andrade and Chico. At some point during the story MSF's mother base is attacked by a mysterious splinter organization, XOF. Big Boss then falls into a coma for nine years, which leads to the events of the main chapter. The basis of the main story revolves around Big Boss forming a new elite unit of soldiers, the "Diamond Dogs".